Category Archives: Pink And Brown

A year or so ago my friend S was going through her fabric and found this fabric. It was declared ‘ugly’, so I took it as a challenge to make a quilt featuring it. It is vintage – only 36″ wide.

I started collecting pink and brown FQs with no idea where this quilt would end up. Last fall I found an Windham Fabrics ad which showed a free pattern called Pathways to the Stars. I knew then I had found my pattern. It’s about 3/4 of the way down the page.

The picture is not very good, but I got the borders on earlier this afternoon.

I’m happy to report no new purchases this week, and that I actually got some piecing done.

I completely ignored the handquilting I should be doing to do a bit of piecing. A Kansas Spirit block was due to the LQS, so I got it done timely and then came home and made two more. So there’s one left to make.

I quilted Cherry Frolic, so used the backing and binding fabric I purchased last week, and I finally finished cutting the border for my Pink & Brown quilt. I also prepared the binding for the quilt so I move the ‘scraps’ into my stash and out of the project box.

Monday was the Kansas Trouble Stash Society meeting with a whopping 10.75 yards. Tuesday a package arrived from Tammy with red and greens in exchange for the music fabric I sent her a couple of weeks ago. Since I counted the music fabric Out, I’m counting this fabric In. Then Wednesday I added another 2 yards for borders and binding for my Pink & Brown quilt — which still needs borders. I haven’t made it to the basement with the fabric to wash.

In the use department, I finished setting the blocks together for the Pink & Brown quilt, finished ALL of step 1 on OTR and finished making the pinwheels and half-pinwheels from step 2. Most of this is not countable as it had all been chopped up prior to the first of the year. I did have to cut a few more strips for the pinwheels.

What is countable is the 2 Broken Dishes blocks I’ve made to take to the retreat in April and the String blocks I made yesterday to send to Australia.

The other day on the way to the Kansas Troubles Stash Society meeting, my friends and I were discussing which projects we were planning to take to the retreat in April. On my list was my Pink & Brown quilt. The blocks have been finished since November, and I had 4 rows sewn together. But why was I delaying completing this top?

It finally hit me. I’m trying to make sure that I finish things — get the quilts bound and labeled — and use stash to offset fabric purchases. This particular quilt is going to the in the top stage for a while — may even hang out in the need borders stage — and I “can’t” count the fabric since the blocks were already made prior to the first of the year.

So, I changed my mind after I got home on Monday. I needed some mindless piecing and putting these blocks into a top filled the bill. Obviously it’s off my list for April, but there are several more where this came from.

Now all I need to do is figure out the borders.

The brown fabric in the chain was a challenge fabric. My friend, S, said it was ugly and I disagreed, so I had to figure out a way to make it work in a quilt. It’s a vintage piece — only 36″ wide and came from her MIL’s estate. Back in the fall I figured out I have enough left to do a narrow border, but I also want a wider outerborder – I simply haven’t figure out what yet. Maybe scrappy from the rest of the fabric?